Tuesday, 7 March 2017

MONDO DROMO ~ SOLIPSISMO .... review

South America is on fire these days, there doesn't seem a day goes by without some kick-ass band playing kick-ass grooves makes it way onto the music littered desk of Desert Psychlist. Grooves coming from places like Chile. Brazil, Peru and others are becoming as anticipated as those from the USA and European big hitters Greece and Sweden.
The latest band from South America to assail Desert Psychlist's senses with their gnarly refrains is Mondo Dromo, a quartet from Buenos Aires, Argentina courtesy of their new EP "Solipsimo"( Venado Records).

For those not familiar with listening to music coming from the South American continent. or any other non-English speaking nation/continent for that matter, the secret is not to translate every syllable via some internet translator but to allow the melodies and general flow of the vocals to wash over you as if you were listening to another instrument. This works especially well with the vocal deliveries on "Solipsismo", where the gritty tonal qualities of vocalist/guitarist Andrés Gargiulo are slightly buried within the mix allowing the immense stoner/psych grooves, which are the bands stock-in -trade, to dominate proceedings. Having said this those tonal qualities remain an integral component in Mondo Dromo's overall sonic attack.
Musically Mondo Dromo are a tour-de-force of gnarly fuzzed riffage and hard driving rhythms enhanced by scorching guitar solo's and psychedelic arpeggios. Gargiulo and second guitarist Francisco Badano lay down swathes of fuzz soaked guitar driven hard by Sebastián Romani's powerful percussion and Martín Tarifeño's bone rattling bass lines, all coloured by Gargiulo's powerful gritty/clean vocals.
The EP consists of four songs, "Aquas Negras", a raucous mix of hard rock bluster and stoner/psych grit, "Solipsismo", a hard driven acid laced rocker with a deliciously addictive groove, "Lava" a riff fuelled romp though desert territory on a Kyuss shaped camel and "Broken", a nicely paced bluesy barnstormer that on its way to it's droning conclusion takes in elements of space, psych and blistering hard rock.

If you don't speak Spanish but like your grooves molten hot with a touch of heavy psych colouring and an element of dusty desert swagger then "Solipsismo" is an EP that you should hear, it could open a whole new world to you.
Check it out .....

About Me

My name is Frazer (FDJ/Stonerking) and I am sole writer for stoner/doom and psych blog DESERT PSYCHLIST. I am not schooled in journalism, have no degrees and have very little knowledge of English grammer in fact I have no certificates of any description! The truth is I spent most of my formative school years not actually being there preferring instead to following bands around, going to gigs and travelling around the country to see my local football (soccer) team.

The reviews I write here are never going to be grammatically correct with punctuation in all the right places and nor will they be thought provoking and deep, sometimes they will not even make much sense to anyone other than myself but what they will be is from the heart. I want you the reader to feel the music that I love, share in my discoveries and in my disappointments and generally help me to promote the bands and the music that means so much to me. If you find something among these pages and posts that you like then follow the links and spend a few pennies supporting the artist. Lets give a little something back to those that give us so much.